"K" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 13:18:03 -0000, "Nick"
wrote:


I was sent a letter last week by SWT reminding me about my annual season
ticket renewal (travelcard) - the letter specifically said that
oystercards
were not a national rail product and would not be issued.


Yes, I got that also. I read on here about Richmond station issuing
Oystercards - AFAIK Richmond is operated by SWT - hence my question.

I would imagine it would go along the lines of what type of ticket stock
Season Tickets are issued on at the moment: LUL or NR.

Richmond ticket office is indeed operated by SWT, so I imagine that they
would continue to issue Mag. Stripe Seasons as a matter of course..

As has been said here before, SWT have no interest in Oystercards. It may be
of benefit to their customers, but it just gives them a headache having to
provide portable readers etc. and having to deal with different systems.

If they had a choice in the matter they would choose to give you a magnetic
stripe ticket. As they are a National Rail company I suspect that in fact
they don't have a choice in the matter, and will be bound to continue
supplying magnetic stripe tickets until such time as all other TOCs adopt
Oyster (i.e. very unlikely).

I suspect that the only reason they are having their ticket offices fitted
out to cope with Oystercards is to meet their obligations to LUL, and to be
able to sell LUL tickets to LUL customers who have Oystercards.

If you buy a season ticket from Richmond you will undoubtedly be classed as
a SWT customer as opposed to an LUL customer.

Colin